Who we are

What we do

Memory is a fundamental process that allows us to make sensible predictions about what might happen in the future based on past experience. Put simply, it stops us repeating our mistakes.

We are interested in how the brain remembers past events and how this shapes behaviour in the present. We use experimental psychology, virtual reality, computational modelling, and brain imaging to understand these processes in the healthy human brain. We also test patients with memory deficits to understand how these processes can become impaired.

Why we do it

We aim to apply what we learn in the lab to the real world. This can be in an educational setting, where our experiments can inform how information in best learnt and retained, and in a medical setting, where understanding the breakdown of memory processes can shape interventions to help specific patients function more effectively in the real world.

We also believe in the value of basic science in and of itself. Unravelling the complexities of the human brain is inherently valuable to society regardless of translation. Ultimately, we do what we do because we are fascinated by the brain.

Lab members

Aidan James Horner

Principal Investigator

Aidan completed his BSc in psychology and MSc in cognitive neuroscience at the University of York, and his PhD in cognitive Neuroscience at the Unversity of Cambridge, UK. He held postdoctoral positions at the Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany and University College London, UK.

Bardur Hofgaard Joensen

PhD Student

Bardur completed his BSc in psychology at the University of Aberdeen, UK and MSc in cognitive neuroscience at Univerisity College London, UK.

bhj501@york.ac.uk

Jamie Cockcroft

PhD Student

Jamie completed his BSc in psychology and MSc in cognitive neuroscience at Durham University, UK.

jpc534@york.ac.uk

Research

We are interested in how our memory of the past shapes our decisions in the present. We use a variety of techniques to understand the neural basis of memory-guided decision-making in the healthy human brain, and how it breaks down in specific patient populations. Below are examples of projects both past and present.

Pattern completion

Pattern completion allows us to retrieve a complete memory trace when only presented with a partial cue. For example, we might remember all the details of a social event with a friend when presented with only a picture the friend. This project explores this pattern completion process for complex episodic events. It also focusses on the roles of the hippocampus and neocortex during this process, and how they interact. Ultimately, we are interested in how the brain supports our ability to subjectively re-experience previous life events.

Grid cells

Grid cells are a type of spatially modulated neuron found in both rodents and humans. They fire in multiple locations in a given environment in a highly regular fashion. This regularity allows us to use non-invasive brain imaging to measure a 'grid-like' signal in the human brain. Here we are interested in whether grid cells are used for more than spatial navigation. For example, do we use grid cells when we close our eyes and imagine moving through space?

Spatial boundaries

Memories of past events are often subjectively discrete in nature. We remember what happened in a specific period that spans both time and space. What defines the boundaries of this event? Here we are interested in the role of spatial boundaries in segmenting our continuous sensory experience into more discrete 'events' that form the basis of our memories of the past.